Review Summary: Lose the kids and our identities
Despite coming out a mere year after 2004’s Blast Tyrant, 2005’s Robot Hive/Exodus saw some dramatic updates to Clutch’s overall sound. Much of this can be attributed to the recruitment of keyboardist Mick Schauer, whose extensive mix of organs and pianos seems to encourage the band to lean even harder on the predecessor’s laid back direction. It’s the same sort of heavy blues rock with its outside influences getting to be even more adventurous.
One can also disregard any concerns about how the extra member would affect the musicians’ chemistry as the performances are as self-assured as ever. The vocals only seem to amp up the charisma with plenty of opportunities to lean into their storytelling while the guitars compete with the keyboards in an almost friendly rivalry. The rhythms have enough tightness between them to keep things from getting derailed but are loose enough to follow where the songs may lead.
I do appreciate how the songwriting fluctuates and gets gradually more free-flowing over the course of the album. It helps that the opening numbers burst with robust fervor; “The Incomparable Mr. Flannery” is a low key all-timer with a classic rock strut and a narrative voice that playfully encourages the urge to just get away from it all. “Burning Beard” is this album’s rush the stage heavy battering while “Gullah” and “Mice and Gods” bounce around with infectious heaviness. One can sense a vibe shift taking place as “Pulaski Skyway,” “Never Be Moved,” and the iconic “110001110101” let their dynamics breathe while keeping their earworm vocal lines.
Things get decidedly trippier from there as the back half’s songs embrace a more free-spirited outlook. “Small Upsetters” and “Tripping The Alarm” are dissociative instrumentals with catchy enough bops to stay coherent, perhaps even serving as stopgaps. It seems like the overexcited Greco Roman-themed showboating on “Circus Maximus” and the echoing chant that drives “10,000 Witnesses” shouldn’t work as well as they do, yet their ideas feel developed enough to not feel like thoughtless filler.
Ending the album on two blues numbers was a smart choice for the pacing, bringing it on home with a return to more grounded structuring. Their jam on Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “Gravel Road” may be more extravagant than a pure delta blues rendition would be, but it taps into a rustic aura fantastically with its tempo shifts maintaining the groove. Their rendition of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Who’s Been Talking?” is more straightforward in comparison and works as a pleasant comedown with its organ/vocal interplay evoking that old timey spirit.
Robot Hive/Exodus might secretly be my favorite Clutch album, if only for how perfect its easygoing jammy blues rock vision turns out to be. You won’t find the aggressive aspects that had defined their sound early on yet the music here never feels out of character. The better known songs are rather understated as far as hit potential goes yet there’s always a catchy appeal even in its most spaced out tangents. It’s perfectly suited for when you just want a lazy Sunday afternoon on a desert plant highway.
